Before The Rain - Movie Review
When we think about time scientifically it is the unit used to specify rates like the rate of change of velocity is acceleration . Philosophically, I think it is circular. Circularity of time has many takers and nature is one of them. The repeating of seasons, day & night are all examples for cyclicity of time. We also observe cyclicity of time in the stages of man's life as depicted by Shakespeare in his seven stages of life which is also incidentally described in Sanskrit vedas (Remember the Rajnikanth song about stages in life?). But when I look at an hour glass, the past is so vast (the bottom of the glass) and future is so vast (the top, of course) while the present is a tiny narrow opening with constant change. It is like everything that happens in life is compressed to a single point in time that our human brains cannot comprehend and hence is expanded by us to experience and enunciate the happenings at that point of time. I know you are wondering why am I blabbering this in a movie review. I am not blabbering! This is what happened inside me, the argument that my mind was having with itself, pulling its hair, searching for more philosophies about time and existence. This is what you will be doing after watching this great movie - Before the Rain.
The film is in three parts - Words, Faces & Pictures. Each word perfectly describes each part with both subtle and in your "face" cues. Each part portrays a love story that is affected, either directly or indirectly, by the conflict happening in the Balkan region. Except for the second part, in which the story is based in London, the other two are shot in Macedonia. The Macedonian born director & writer, Milčo Mančevski, has done a master piece that is quite possibly one of the best movies that you never heard about! After watching the movie you might either dismiss it as a noob's directorial venture where he did not even pay heeds to editing or you might appreciate his delving deeper into the philosophy of time. One sentence "Time doesn't wait and the circle is not round", that is repeated in the movie either pictorially or verbally, is the corner stone of the movie which eliminates the doubt about the editing skills deployed in this one.
This is one of those movies which ought to be seen with friends and later to be discussed over drinks. Many sites or so called movie buffs have discussed the genius of Nolan and his idea in Inception while a similar euphoria might be absent for this movie it has done well in international circuits. Everytime I have tried to watch this movie, which is thrice in the past week alone, I have discovered something that I had missed earlier that is obvious. When I tried to decipher the movie, with my brain that has been trained in linear thinking and sequential philiospohy of time in which one thing leads to the other, I laughed like a mad person. I won't analyse more about this movie or the cinematography or music. It will not do justice to this very well made movie to say the least. All I can say is that this movie will drive you nuts in a good positive way, make you want to travel to the shores of Adriatic and make you wonder why are such movies not screened let alone made in India!?
It's not on the shores of the Adriatic Sea,it's on the shores od Lake Ohrid :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction mate :)
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